On the third Sunday of Easter, twenty years ago, I had a “Pentecost Moment.” The Cathedral Deans of North America were to vest and process in a festival Eucharist at St. George’s College in Jerusalem. A few of us decided to go early and join the Palestinian Eucharist as well.
The preacher was Naim Ateek. I could not translate the words of his sermon. But suddenly I understood everything he was saying. Somehow in a depth, I had never known previously, I was one with the preacher and the people in a different place, culture, language and moment of God’s history.
It happened again to me a few years ago. We were attending a Sunday Eucharist in Santo Domingo. Jean Monique Bruno, a Haitian priest, serving in the Dominican Republic was the celebrant and preacher. He avoided the pulpit and walked the aisle among the members of his community and we visitors.
He challenged his congregation with questions about the Scripture of the Day. The congregation seemed to catch fire. Enthusiasm derives from the Greek “En-Theos”. My dictionary says “From God” and “inspired.” There was joy, laughter and passion in the dialogue. I lost sense of time and for once it didn’t seem to matter. Despite my pathetic skills in the Spanish language, I again returned to the depth of a “Pentecost Moment.” I could not translate the words, but I understood everything that was being said.
The conventional wisdom of our time says that we must be safe and secure to live the good life. Pentecost says NO! It is when we choose to be vulnerable that the Spirit empowers us. It comes when we open our arms as Jesus did on the Cross, and welcome all in. It is comfortable to stay where we think we are protected. Yet, it is in the swirling, crowded, unfamiliar and unusual places, where I seem to collide most often with the Spirit.
Come and Grow in the Spirit. I think it is no coincidence that cults and terrorist groups isolate their members. What would happen if we were all in the marketplace and found the Christ in the other? What if we left the places where everyone knows our name to go “seek and serve Christ in all persons” in accord with our Baptismal Covenant?
In a story I love to tell, a Coast Guard station received a call of a vessel in distress in the midst of a horrendous Nor’easter. As the crew prepared to launch the rescue vessel, a new recruit kept peppering the old Chief with questions about the danger of going out into the giant waves and gale force winds. Finally, in terror, he shouts at the Chief, “If we go out there, we may never come back.” The old Chief smiled and said, “Son, we don’t have orders to come back.”
When we enter into the ministry of baptism, we have no orders to come back. But as the old favorite hymn reminds us, “’tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
